Sunday, 21 July 2013

Manchester MCM Madness.

Wow.
How busy was that ?
We decided to try something new at yesterday's MCM in Manchester. We'd done pretty well at previous events but found that we weren't tempting the non-comic reading attendees. People who were there so that their sons or daughters could meet the Knights fom the Merlin TV Series. Whilst chatting to them last year we had the feeling that they might have been tempted by the Anthologies had the price been lower.
The other consideration hitting us at the moment is storage. We have a lot of the old anthologies still in boxes in lofts and need to make space for new titles.
Combining these we decided to try out MCM Madness, where everything on the table was £3 (except of course the WesterNoir three issue sketch packs).
A simple pricing structure that was easy to talk through with potential customers. It did mean however that we'd need to leave Zombies 2, Thaddeus Mist and my little hard cover books at home.
We decided to give it a go.
It worked.
We shifted a few boxes of the anthology titles, and a good number of the one shots during a very busy day.
This was a record breaking one day event for us in terms of books sold, but due to the prices was probably equal, or close to, other events in terms of cash taken.
It certainly tempted those people who liked robots (as an example) to part with £3 and pick up a great anthology packed with short stories and pinups.
The hope is, of course, that they'll come back for more, and maybe be tempted to pick up some of the one shots. Only time will tell.
All in all it was a great day. We met a lot of old friends and returning customers, many of whom are also Facebook Friends and members of the Accent UK Comics Facebook Group. WesterNoir #3 sold really well, and a number of customers picked up all three copies. It's great to have an ongoing story and character, and having artist Gary Crutchleyat the table to sign and enthuse was great.
Highlight for me though was selling a copy of Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man ? to someone who'd heard the story outline from a friend some 4 years ago and failed to track down a copy over the years. When I explained to story to him as he looked at the table he was shocked that here it was. He'd stumbled across it after all that web surfing and forum posting.
Yep, Accent UK had a great day.
Thanks to everyone who came to the table.

Well I was one of those At Manchester who was tempted by the £3 a book price and bought three sets in the end. And as hoped I'm now checking out the web page as I'm thirsty for more. Wish some of the other artists had this foresight especially the one selling his book for £40, beautiful as it was, but no, no way. Thanks again guys, hope to see you again next year or maybe at Thought Bubble, Leeds?Brian Harrison

That's great, glad you enjoyed them. In defence of the £40 book, and it did look very good but was also a little too rich for my budget, I think they probably printed a very low number and hence their cost price was probably pretty steep forcing their cover price up. It's a difficult balance to make but ultimately if the cover price is going to be too high then you won't be able to sell many copies which kind of defeats the purpose. A shame as the book did look good and if it'd been £10 I'd have bought one.

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Accent UK.

Founded in 2000, Accent UK is a privately owned comic publisher based in Cheshire in the United Kingdom.

Owners Colin Mathieson and Dave West collect the talents of the UK Independent Comic publishing community, along with guests from overseas, producing an annual themed anthology and self contained one shots.

Allowing the product to evolve each year, has seen an improvement in the over all quality of the comics produced as all involved hone their skills, and better use is made of technology, designers and printers.

Andy Bloor oversees all design aspects of the comics, graphic novels and website. Bringing a more professional look to all of our output.

We attend numerous conventions in the UK, are regulars at Denmark's KOMIKS.DK and New York's Mocca events.

All of our books are distributed through DIAMOND and available to order from PREVIEWS.

About Me

I'm your typical 20th Century bloke living in the 21st Century and wondering what's going on. I like to live in a world where there are still questions to be answered and mysterious happennings. My ideal magazine would be the result of combining Fortean Times with New Scientist ... and leaving it to the reader to interpret.
I work against IT during the day, and at night I try to steal moments to create comic books. Either as writer, artist or both. I've formed a small independent comic company in the UK, Accent UK, with Colin Mathieson, which produces quite well received annual themed anthologies, but is also now producing one shots. Comics that I've co-created and written include ''The Wolfmen'',''The Fall Of The Wolfmen'', with art by Andy Bloor and the 2009 EAGLE Award winning ''Whatever Happened To The World's Fastest Man?'' which was illustrated by Marleen Lowe. My own little doodlings appear in webcomic called ''Strange Times'' and the yearly anthologies.